1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates floor refinishers and particularly to a floor refinisher using needles to break epoxy coatings.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Modern floors in commercial buildings are often finished with epoxy coatings. This produces a durable smooth finished surface. Overtime, however, these surfaces wear and need to be resurfaced. Before a new surface layer of epoxy coating can be poured, the original surface must be prepared. This is normally accomplished by roughing up the surface to break up the old coating. This is normally done to a depth of between 1/16 and ½ of an inch. This prepared surface is then able to take a new coating of epoxy that is smooth and like new.
The current method used to prepare the surface of the floors involves the use of a shot blaster. A shot blaster is a device that uses small steel balls (shot) that are blasted into the floor surface. A machine holds the shot and provides the force for blasting them into the floor. The machine has a powerful vacuum to pull the shot back into the machine as they are blasted out. This machine does produce a properly prepared floor for refinishing. However, they have some problems. First, they are large. Even the smaller units are too large to fit easily into corners. This means that the edges of the floor have to be broken up by hand. This is a slow and difficult process that can result in injuries to workers. Another problem is that the use steel shot—typically a thousand pounds of shot or more are required for a typical job. This increases shipping costs, especially to rural areas. Furthermore, despite the powerful vacuum, the machine does not recover all of the shot pellets. This means that workers must take time to clean up the shot pellets after the job. It also requires extra quantities of shot be kept on hand to refill the machine as needed. This further increases the cost of the job.
Another device that can be used for floor preparation is a head scabbler. This device uses carbide percussive cutting heads to pound the floor surface. The heads are circular and have four protrusions per head that contact the floor surface. The heads are also positioned in a rectangular spaced-apart pattern. The device is small it has a 12 inch wide cutting path. This is a powerful machine that can do the job, but still is not large enough to do large areas efficiently. Moreover, the spaced-apart pattern of cutting heads requires the operator to mover over an area multiple times to ensure a properly prepared surface. Finally, the spaced-apart pattern does nothing to help prepare the edges of a room. This means that these areas must be done by hand also.